The following months and millennia

 was a very dry year. Until autumn, Ótzi's body lay on the ground among the rocks, while the foehn winds blowing in from the Sahara dried and mummified it. In the autumn, snow fell and for months covered Ótzi in a thick layer of fluff, which eventually turned into compacted firn, and finally, in subsequent years, into an increasingly thick layer of ice. The weather apparently changed, and the summer thaw did not reach Ótzi's body, which remained undisturbed in its icy tomb for the next millennia. The shroud of dead ice—trapped between the rocks—did not flow like the nearby Similaun Glacier, so Ótzi's body was not crushed or even deformed; many coincidences must have occurred for his body to survive to this day.

And yet he almost vanished without a trace—nearly 2,000 years ago, during the Roman era, warming came, the ice began to melt, and finally, around 100 AD, Ótzi found himself back on the surface, this time in a pool of icy meltwater. This is according to Thomas Bereuster of the Vienna University of Technology, a specialist in natural mummies, who believes that otherwise Ótzi could not have been so well preserved and would not have exhibited some of the unusual features we see today.

This unintentional dip, however, didn't last long—a year, perhaps several years. Otherwise, his body wouldn't have survived. Then, it was trapped in the ice again for another two millennia, until September 19, 1991. In the spring of 2003, the Simons filed a lawsuit, demanding official recognition as the discoverers of Ótzi's body, which would allow them to pursue financial claims. They could then claim 25 percent of the value of the find. They and their attorney demanded $250,000 as a share of the profits from ticket sales at the Bolzano museum. On November 3, 2003, the court ruled in their favor. This doesn't close the case, however, but rather opens up endless possibilities for further controversy. The dispute is unprecedented and will probably not end soon. The South Tyrol Museum declares its readiness to honor the Simons with "a certain amount" (5,000 PLN or less was mentioned), but rejects the possibility of discussing six-figure sums. The interested parties themselves did not initially consider any financial claims, they mentioned a plaque commemorating their participation.

Only their lawyers made them realize that Ótzi was a real goldmine, hence the lawsuit, which was settled at the end of 2003. The auction will undoubtedly be lengthy, and the final amount they will receive is unpredictable. The only question that remains is the one posed by the lawyer for the Bolzano museum, the one with which we began this text: Is it permissible to trade in human remains? And a mathematical puzzle remains: What is 25% of the priceless value?